Friday, April 07, 2006

Here is an unofficial English translation of what Zenit reported in Italian today which simply confirms the subject matter (vaguely) of today's interdicasterial meeting between the Pope and Curial heads. Most of the article below simply relays what has gone prior to today's meeting, and as they point out, little has been offered in the way of "details on the arguments treated."

Thanks to a faithful reader, Juan, for translating this for me, and thanks to an NLM reader, Bedwere, for indirectly directing my attention to this. The official English translation will liekly be available from Zenit tomorrow.

Second meeting between Benedict XVI and the heads of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia

This Friday morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, Benedict XVI presided over a meeting with the heads of the dicateries of the Roman Curia.

The Press Office of the Holy See has confirmed that the encounter took place in the Sala Bologna, without offering details on the arguments treated.

It's the second meeting of such character called by the Pope, after the one on 13 February in which, among other questions, they discussed the topic of the reconcilition with the Fraternity of St Pius X, founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Thereafter, the Pope has asked that this topic be again discussed at the meeting of all the cardinals of the world gathered on the eve of the concistory of 23 March.

After that meeting, Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Clergy and of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei", has given the conclusion, affirming that the Church "waits with open arms" the followers of Mgr Lefebvre.

"At present one is studying the best way", the Colombian prelate added in response to the question on the possibility of conceding them a "prelature" dependent on the Pope.

During that meeting, the Pope has charged Francis Cardinal Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, with presenting the question of the postconciliar liturgical reform and the use of the Missal of the St Pius V, in use before the Second Vatican Council, requested by the so-called "traditionalists".

The French Episcopal Conference published this Friday a statement at the end of their Plenary Assembly in which it reveals that "'these coming weeks or months" the Pope "should give instructions to ease the path towards a possible return to full communion".

On 2 July 1988, John Paull II stated in his apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei that the illegitimate ordinations, on the part of Mgr Lefebvre, of four bishops from the Fraternity constituted (30 June 1988) a "schismatic act".

This ordination has ruptured the attempts at an agreement between the Holy See and the Fraternity, brought forward by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the name of John Paul II.

Mgr Lefebvre died 25 March 1991. His successor at the helm of the Fraternity is one of the ordained bishops, Mgr Bernard Fellay, whom Benedict XVI received in a private audience on 29 August 2005.

[Saying about equally as much, ie. not much at all, is this CWNews report of today's meeting.]